In many parts of the world, the provision of adequate healthcare has been complicated due to the lack of sufficient number of doctors located in proximity to the patients. Advanced digital/mobile technology providing low cost connectivity and compute power has enabled the option of large scale telemedicine and advanced cloud-based systems are being deployed. These systems enable a variety of care to be delivered to patients conveniently and cost-effectively using local systems and attendants and remote doctors using video conferencing.
The current focus has been on expanding the deployment of these systems and attracting a large flow of patients (the demand side). There has not been much attention given to the supply side—the fact that qualified and competent doctors are in short supply in most parts of the world and the remote doctor is the most expensive element of the system, typically 30-60% of the cost of a consultation—both these issues are big barriers to achieving very large scale deployment of telemedicine.